Whatever It Takes
by VikkiHeat
Summary: Sophie/Nate. Sophie finds a way to help Nate with his addiction, but his first step is to accept that he had a problem. S1 fic. One shot.


**Whatever It Takes**

_Summary: Sophie/Nate. Sophie finds a way to help Nate with his addiction, but his first step is to accept that he had a problem. One shot._

_Inspired by the song 'Whatever It Takes' by Lifehouse. I think the song suits Sophie/Nate perfectly, and if you haven't heard it you should check it out._

_This is set sometime during Season 1. Some mentions of sex, nothing graphic._

_Dedicated to gayfortinafey who I badgered into watching Leverage, and now she loves it even more than I do!_

_First shot at a Leverage fic. Reviews are appreciated!_

* * *

She's doing it again. Using that voice; the one she reserved for their marks. Everything about it sounded fake to Nate. It was too warm, too simpering, so unlike the Sophie Devereux he knew and had once known intimately. It just wasn't her, and he felt like she was closing herself off to him, creating a barrier between them far more impenetrable that if it had been a physical divide. Of course, part of Nate understood Sophie's behaviour and motivations but the rest of him was just hurt, and angry.

He was supposed to be the leader of the team; the boss, yet Sophie talked to him as if things were like they used to be. He didn't appreciate her constant comments and snide remarks about his drinking habits. Didn't she realise that alcohol was the only way to dull the pain of losing Sam? Anyway, Nate didn't believe he had a problem with drink – contrary to the beliefs of his team. What Sophie also didn't realise, Nate mused as he watched her watching him, was that perhaps he wouldn't need to drink so much if she didn't keep him at arm's length all the time. She was constantly bringing up the past and alluding to the fact that she still wanted him. He needed for her to make the first move, he couldn't take the chance that she was just flirting with him and that there were no true feelings behind her suggestive words. Also, he had some sort of reputation to maintain as leader of the group of grifters. If he made his feelings for Sophie too well known, it wouldn't be long before he was breaking up fights between Eliot and Hardison over Parker, and Eliot was the last person Nate wanted to be in a physical altercation with.

The meeting broke up for the evening, the three younger members of them team heading home for the night. Nate planned to staying at the office, not able to face going home. He was beginning to spend more and more nights sleeping on the couch at work. The Leverage Headquarters represented something good that he was doing with his life, and he found it easier to sleep her than in his cramped, dank apartment that was overrun with plants on their deathbeds. He waited patiently for Sophie to leave, knowing she'd be both concerned and disgusted if she knew he had been using his office as a bedroom.

Sophie didn't leave though, instead she got up from the large conference table and went to make herself a cup of coffee. Nate noticed that she made her drink in a large mug, indicating that she had no intention of leaving anytime soon. He sighed, rubbing his eyes. What he really wanted was a large measure of whiskey and to fall asleep, but Sophie seemed intent on getting in the way of his plans.

"Should you be drinking that much coffee this late in the evening?" Nate asked, hoping that she would take the hint from his tone that he wanted to be left alone.

Sophie was taken by surprise. "Now you're judging my drinking habits?" It was more of a rhetorical question than anything. "You concern is touching," She continued, a little bitterly. "But I can handle my caffeine, thank you."

Nate sighed, there was no way he was going to get rid of her before she was ready to leave. He suddenly had an idea; he realised he could find a way to make Sophie mad and thus leave more quickly. He got up, moving across to where he had stashed a large bottle of bourbon. It was more than half empty now, but he still poured a generous measure into a thick glass tumbler.

Sophie watched him as she sipped her coffee, her eyes following his every moment until he picked up the glass to take a sip. It was then that she pushed back her chair and walked over to him.

"I think I can find a better cure for your pain than that," She told him, her hand now wrapped around the glass too, their fingers barely centimetres away from each other. "And it doesn't come in a bottle."

It took a moment for what Sophie was saying to sink in, and once it had he did have to wonder if she was just toying with him again. He looked her in the eye but she seemed serious; deadly so.

"Your place or mine?"

* * *

Nate's apartment was nearest and he hoped that he hadn't left it in too much of a mess the last time he had been there. He couldn't even remember the last time he had been there, but he did recall having changed the sheets on his bed not too long ago. Once they crossed the threshold into Nate's two bedroom apartment, Sophie took his hand and led him towards his bedroom, as if she knew where she was going.

Thirty minutes later, sated and wrapped up in each other's warm arms, Sophie turned to look at Nate.

"So, how did that compare with the whiskey?" She asked, although she was confident of his answer.

He pulled her closer, her mass of dark curls tickling his chest as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. It provided Sophie with the answer she had expected. They led together like that for a while, talking only occasionally and in soft voices. A while later, Sophie felt Nate's hold on her relax and turned in his arms to see that he had drifted off to sleep. He looked much younger and more relaxed in slumber, reminding Sophie of the Nathan Ford she had met so long ago. Snuggling closer to Nate, Sophie succumbed to sleep as well.

* * *

When Sophie awoke it took her a few moments to realise that she was not in her own bed, rather in Nate's and that she was alone. She sat up in the bed, pulling the sheet around her although Nate had seen it all before, on more than several occasions. She blinked several times, and saw that Nate was stood by the window looking out over the city through partially open blinds. She located the shirt Nate had been yesterday and slipped into it, fastening only the middle three buttons.

She climbed out of the warm bed and joined Nate by the window. It was only then that she noticed the glass in his hand, filled with about an inch of dark brown liquid. She was more hurt that she had expected she would be. Maybe last night hadn't meant as much to Nate as it had to her.

He looked guilty as Sophie joined him at the window, and suddenly the whiskey didn't hold the same draw it had just minutes ago. He felt Sophie's arms go around him, her body moulding to his back. It increased only further, and in that moment he made a decision for himself and them.

Sophie watched with surprise and with pride as Nate emptied the remainder of his bourbon in the plant pot that sat on the window sill. She smiled as he turned around, taking her into his arms.

"Will you help me?" He asked, not meeting her eye and looking over her shoulder instead. It was hard for him to admit he had a problem and Sophie knew that all too well. She also knew how much it took for Nate to ask for help, especially from her.

"Of course." She smiled, holding him tighter. "Whatever it takes."

Nate felt as though as weight had been lifted off his shoulders; a weight that had been pressing down on him for far too long. He was a long way from being healed but if he had Sophie on his side, he was determined to beat his addiction.

"Thank you." He said softly, his voice close to her ear.

She smiled into his kiss, undoing the buttons she had done up only moments earlier, and leading him back to bed.

As he rode the waves of his climax, Nate began to realise that, whilst he had been viewing Sophie as the problem just twelve short hours, perhaps she was actually the cure.

_Hope you enjoyed! Xx_


End file.
